Badass Lin telling off her officers when they made a remark about her work faltering due to her pregnancy. Linzin married world. Another old idea of mine. Linpreciation (:
I own nothing, Names of children from Linzin Kids
She craved meat. She had no idea why. It was 6:30 in the morning for spirits sake, but she craved meat. The police chief placed a hand on her swollen stomach and smiled a little.
"Are you aware what time it is? It's breakfast, not the time for that." Lin said with a smile as she got up to make some buttered toast instead.
While the toast cooked, Lin felt an involuntary jerking of her stomach and jumped back a little. Her smile returned, a little fuller now, as she put a hand on her stomach and looked down. She never thought she would enjoy being pregnant, it was just never something she saw herself doing. Finding out she was expecting in the first place a few years back was utterly terrifying but now on her second pregnancy, Lin felt a little more at ease. She actually started to envision herself being a mother, a traditional wife with a twist (as she liked to call it). She was excited to have someone to call her child, someone who depended on her, someone to connect with like she did with her mother.
Her first baby had been a girl. When her husband asked what the gender was when she was born, Lin had said "Well girls always come first, the boys just have to wait until they arrive." with a chuckle. Standing there in the kitchen, she recalled her first glimpses at her daughter's face, all her maternal worries floating away as the little girl wrapped her whole fist around her mother's finger. As the timer on the toast went down, Lin found herself hoping that this next baby would be a girl as well, then again she really didn't care, she had grown to love her new role and all that came with it.
That didn't mean that she slacked off at work, she was still the hardened police chief she had always been - her pregnancy hormones proving to be an effective threatening technique to her officers. Fitting and overcoming one of the most popular female stereotypes that men use to say that women can't work like they can was definitely a challenge for Lin to overcome. She remembered trying to think of was to reset her authority over the group of idiot male supremacists she had to face everyday. She decided to put her mood swings to good use, threatening her officers with as many horrible things as she could up with, showing them that she was still the boss and was to be adhered to at all times - maybe just a little more emotional and utterly terrifying at the time. She smirked at the memories playing through her mind as she heard the timer go off. She got her breakfast situated and ate it quickly before sensing her husband walk into the kitchen.
"Morning Airhead." Lin said with a smile.
"Morning darling." Tenzin said as he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Good morning you." he continued with a smile, gently resting a hand on her stomach. He smiled wider before turning back to his wife.
"How are you feeling today?" He asked with a smile as he smoothed away a strand of curls that has fallen in front of her eyes.
"He's a little excited this morning. He wants the weirdest things for breakfast" Lin said with a smile and a small chuckle.
"He? You already know it's a boy?" Tenzin asked with a small smirk at his wife's tendency to come up with ideas out of thin air and stick with them until proven wrong.
"I was thinking it might be a girl again but then I got to thinking, we already had a girl so now a boy can come." Lin said with a laugh. Tenzin laughed too, remembering what his wife had said about girls when their daughter was born.
"Is today the day? They're all coming in?" Tenzin asked as the laughter died down, stroking his wife's arm with a few fingers.
"Yes. Stupid little kids that think they're hot shit just because they got an actual job on the force. In my experience, those are the most idiotic of all, and I have to deal with them all day." Lin said with a frown.
"Just be careful and don't get too excited okay? And as much as you want to, don't kill any of them." Tenzin said and Lin faked a surprised look.
"Oh come on! Even if they deserve it?" Lin said with a mock pout.
"Even then. Come on, let me fly you over to work today. Let's just go drop off Sora with the acolytes and we will head out.
After dropping Sora off with the acolytes who had offered to be her babysitters long ago, Lin and Tenzin set off for Republic City on Oogi. Lin wondered exactly how much these new officers had heard of her, and how much they thought they knew. Her stomach jerked again and she rested a hand on it. As much as she loved being pregnant, she could live without having to prove herself to the men she works with. She smiled down at her stomach as she thought about the little one who would come in about 4 months, she tried to think positive things throughout the remainder of the bison ride, attempting to wait as long as possible to dive right into the hell that would be today. She kissed Tenzin goodbye as they landed and he used his airbending to make sure she got on the ground safely before taking off again and going to City Hall.
Lin stepped inside headquarters and greeted everyone like she usually did. People moved out of the chief's way out of not only respect but to also avoid bumping into her stomach. Lin finally reached her office and found the itinerary for the day of new officers. She heaved a long sigh and made her way to the back room where the newly let out animals were being supervised by some of her best officers. Lin walked in and all talking went silent. Taking her place at the front of the room, Lin went to the podium and spoke.
"Good morning, and welcome to your first day as an official member of the Republic City Police Force. Yada, yada... Now I'm sure you know me but I do not know all of you, so why don't we all introduce ourselves here." Lin said as she made her way down to stand directly in front of the first row of seats. The new officers groaned and Lin's eyes widened.
"Who do you idiots think you're talking to? Do you want to be fired on your first day? Now get up when your name is called, we work as a unit here so if you don't like that then leave." Lin said in her most terrifying voice. The officers quickly shut up. The intros went rather smoothly, Lin learning some names and banking on using some of the new skills she learned that some of these young people possessed. It wasn't until the very last one came up that all hell broke loose.
"My name is Ming. I come from Gaoling, which I know is where you're from chief, and I can...I'm sorry chief, can I ask you something?" Ming asked, making the rest of the room very scared.
"Of course." Lin said with a wave of her hand.
"How can you do this job when you're pregnant? Shouldn't the woman stay at home while she's pregnant and to care for the baby and the house? I don't know that's just what I feel." Ming said bluntly as the room fell into a dead silence.
"I bet you're all wondering how I'm still so effective at this job when I become so 'emotional'" Lin said, adding quotes around the world emotional. She wasn't looking for any affirmation from them, just a rhetorical question.
"Well Ming, I will tell you. See, I know that this a male dominant work force and that all of you think that a woman can't work here normally and definitely not while she's pregnant right? Well I have my own ways of making it work. I use my mood swings as a sort of tool in my administration. They make me much more alert to the horrible work that most of my men do, they also make me much more violent. I threaten so much normally as I do when I'm pregnant. Now, I may not be able to be on the field to fight with you guys but DO NOT think for one second that you can slack off from your duties, I have eyes and ears everywhere. I use my mood swings to my advantage here, directing them at any fucking piece of shit that comes wandering through my office door. My husband and family do not deserve to be subjected to my mood swings, but lucky for me I have the best place to take them out in. And if you test me, if you test my patience, my threats become actions, my other officers will tell you, I don't go back on what I say. So if you do what you are supposed to do and you don't cross me, we won't have a problem here. Just remember, I am the boss here, the authority that should be obeyed. Understand? Good. Dismissed, all of you." Lin said, anger bubbling as she put the new kids in the hands of her other officers.
Lin smiled to herself as she saw a certain narrow-minded boy keeping his head down, face turned red.